NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM THE TEAM

A New Year's resolution is always a tricky thing: do you make one knowing that, in all likelihood, you'll break it, or will this year really be different? Here we list some of the resolution ideas that have been thrown around the office over the last few weeks to see if any of them resonate with you too. We’re determined that this year will see some changes for us, so we’d love you to join us in making 2023 your best year yet!

1. MORE EXERCISE AND HEALTHIER EATING HABITS (FOR US!)

We've put this one first to get it out of the way! After all, what would New Year be without plans to finally stick to that diet, or to push yourself to develop your core strength that little bit more?! While all of these things are important, it can be difficult to implement them in and amongst the realities of everyday life.

Our plan for the coming twelve months is to gradually increase our activity levels and make healthier eating choices. We're not going to make hard and fast rules, as we know that life gets in the way and that once the rule is broken, it is easy to give up entirely. By putting these more realistic principles in place, we hope to create a more sustainable change.

And, if we lack motivation, we're going to come back to the fact that if we expect our horses to be athletes, we have to be athletes too (or at least make some effort to take care of our health!). We don't want to be the thing holding our horses back in 2023!

2. TAKE MORE PHOTOS (AND SEND MORE OF THEM TO HQ!)

It's very important to live in the moment, not just to take pictures of it, but there is a balance. Maybe it's because we take photos of so many other people's horses for the magazine, but many of us on the few photographs of our horses, and are worried we are going to regret this one day. If you're already an avid selfie-snapper, this one is not for you, but if, like us, you tend to avoid cameras as the stable (hathair is not our best look), then take up this challenge with us. Oh, and we love to see and feature your photographs in the magazine and on our social pages, so if you are feeling friendly, reach out and share your photographs with us – info@hqmagazine.co.za

3. SPEND MORE TIME JUST 'BEING' WITH OUR HORSES

It's all too easy to start to treat your horse a bit like a motorbike with hair. In this country, we are fortunate enough to have grooms, so it is easy for us to turn up at 3:30pm and find our horse ready to go. Yet, if we're not careful, we end up just riding, bringing them back to the stables and handing them right back to their groom without spending any time getting to know them better.

Of course, the convenience of the 'ride and go' approach is hugely helpful sometimes, and most of us will be guilty of taking advantage of this at some point. However, we do need to make sure our horses sometimes feel that we are there to be with them rather than do something with them. We need to be more than the person who turns up, sits on their back and leaves again.

Kids and their ponies don't have such fantastic bonds purely by chance. Instead, their bonds develop because kids are willing to spend time with their ponies doing very little. As adults, we tend to see this as 'wasted time' that could be used for work or other chores. Kids will groom their pony, play hide and seek with their pony, visit their pony in the paddock and sit and read a book in their pony's stable. They are content to 'waste' that time and reap the rewards it pays.

This year we will endeavour to discover with our horses doing nothing much at all. This is vital for our bond with our horse, but it is also essential for us to occasionally be 'human beings', not 'human doings'.

4. SET RIDING GOALS

Last year we failed to set any riding goals and, as a consequence, ambled along without achieving an awful lot. Most of us need some kind of goal to keep our motivation up. Goals help us to remain focused and to work constructively to achieve them.

Everyone's goals will be different but make sure your goal pushes you a little bit out of your comfort zone without being absolutely impossible to achieve. Once you have your big goal for the next 12 months, it's a good idea to set a few small goals on the way to meeting your overall goal. This helps to keep you motivated as you'll achieve some of the short-term goals quite quickly while building the bigger picture.

5. TIDY YOUR CAR

Fitting in riding around work commitments and family life requires serious organisation. Without this organisation, life becomes pretty chaotic, and most of this chaos (at least in our case) seems to reside in our car. On any given day, our cars may contain our riding hats, jodhpurs, boots, t-shirts, underwear from three weeks ago when we showered at the stables, some fermenting carrots, and perhaps that odd piece of tack that we WILL almost certainly get round to cleaning some time never. We have decided that this has to change. No more will we live out of our cars – it makes us feel that our lives are a mess, and it is difficult to be productive when we feel so disorganised (and spend four hours looking for a bit in the back of the car). We have, therefore, promised ourselves that 2023 will be the year of the tidy car!

A confession

Our editor embarked on a serious tidying spree this year after discovering that her car had become host to a small family of newborn mice/rats in a bag of treats that had been under her car seat for some indiscriminate period of time. The horror of this discovery, along with the fact that many of the car's other contents had been chewed by tiny teeth, really prompted some SERIOUS cleaning!

6. TRY SOMETHING NEW

Here at HQ, we're fortunate enough to attend many different equestrian events across the country, and we know how much this benefits our knowledge and work with our own horses. In 2023, we will try and expand our horizons further by attending more events, especially those that we haven't been to before, and would like to encourage you to do the same. You don’t need to spend money to do this – simply go along as a spectator and see what you can pick up! Alternatively, you could volunteer at one of these events or offer to help with the running of a show in a discipline in which you compete. Seeing your sport from a different perspective can help you better understand how the industry works and introduce you to new people who may have new perspectives that you can learn from.

7. PLAN YOUR RIDING SESSIONS IN ADVANCE

We don't know about you but weare definitely guilty of mounting our trusty steed, walking to the arena, spending 20 minutes trying to work out what to do and then trotting a few circles before returning to the stables. This indecision is wasting to the stables, we have a rough idea of what we will be working on. Of course, plans can change, so if your horse doesn't seem to be in the mood for the activity you have planned, or someone else is using that particular course of jumps, you can always modify your plan or head out for an outride. It will still be beneficial to have some idea pre-session of what you want to achieve to minimise horseback 'thinking time'.

8. BE A NERD

It's no secret that Team HQ are a bunch of nerds; we devour any horse-related content, particularly books and courses. We believe that it's best to learn from the experts and that the least expensive and time-consuming way to do this is by investing in their books, lectures or courses and studying these avidly. After all, where else can you find all their years of experience distilled down in one place? In 2023, we hope to do more of this than ever, with lots of exciting opportunities in the pipeline for our team and readers. But for now, our next book on the reading list is the new Peder Fredricson autobiography 'Six Feet Above'… We'll let you know how it goes!

9. BE GRATEFUL

We are so privileged to have these wonderful creatures in our lives, and it is all too easy to forget how lucky we are. For this reason, this year, we are going to make a conscious effort to spend less time moaning and more time enjoying the ride! Every time we get to ride and spend time with our horses is a gift and should be treated as such, so rather than complaining about the traffic on the way to the stables or the hectic day we've had at the office, we will simply embrace being with these animals who make everything else worthwhile.